Justice happens in community. From the ancient conquest of the land of Canaan to modern criminology, the evidence is clear that both causes and effects of crime and punishment are always shared. As themicahmission.org puts it, "crime control lies primarily in community." Got your superhero costume ready??

Punishment alone does not often address the root causes of harm or change behaviours. The goal of restoration is not balancing the scale (it was likely never balanced in the first place) or undoing the harm, but of taking responsibility, repairing damaged relationships and honoring the humanity of victims and offenders alike.

We were pleased to have Dave Feick, Executive Director at Micah Mission, share with us this week.

Justice is complicated. Humans have a variety of reactions when things go wrong--some less healthy than others. Revenge offers a shortcut to restoration: balance is achieved by subtraction, taking something away from another to compensate for what has been taken from me. But another way to reclaim balance is addition: acknowledging, feeling and understanding what has been lost and allowing hurt to be transformed into growth. How can we deal with shame, seek/offer support and walk the winding paths towards healing?

Note: We had some audio issues this week. You can find the written version of the sermon on our website: www.wildwoodmennonite.org.

How can something be so ordinary but also so special? The Christmas season is different from the rest of the year... but the same kind of difference as it was last year, and the year before that... Going all the way back to the nativity of Jesus, the story of God-With-Us has always been about ordinary people and ordinary lives being revealed as sacred--the mundane packaging for the very presence of God. Whatever your Christmas is filled with this season, whether ordinary or strange or difficult, may our eyes and hearts be open to see and live the simple and spectacular restoration work of God among us.

Restoration takes vision, planning, creativity, development: the hard work of getting from here to there. You look ahead, you anticipate what’s coming, and you get ready for it. But how do you prepare when you have no idea what’s coming? Brace yourself...and click onward!

Restoration is near! Great! That sounds like just what we need--but what does it even mean?!? The prophet's vision at the start of the book of Isaiah weaves together images of the glory days of the past together with an idealistic imagination of the future. Exciting, inspirational stuff--but then nothing happened. Likewise, we often long for Order or Reorder, but find ourselves caught in Disorder for far longer than we had hoped. This is the stuff of Advent; welcome to the journey.

On Eternity Sunday each year, we pause to reflect on our losses from the past year and from a lifetime of human frailty. "Comfort, comfort my people" is the offering from God through the voice of the prophet Isaiah. What does that comfort look like and how do we receive it? Join us for a view of God in the rocking chair.

"Non-duality is the highest level of consciousness. Divine union, not private perfection, is the goal of all healthy religion" (Richard Rohr et al). Non-duality is a bit of a puzzle for some of us, not exactly words a ton of Mennonites use to describe our spirituality. What do we make of this final tenet in the Alternative Orthodoxy series, and what does it mean to make divine union the goal of our faith?

This Peace Sunday Heather Peters, Peacebuilding Coordinator with MCC Saskatchewan, challenged us with these important questions:

How do we humanize our enemies? How do we help others find peace when we’ve been victimized ourselves? How do we open ourselves to the wonder of forgiveness? All these questions bring us back to the question of the central theme: how do we ensure peace is more than a wish?

"The path of descent is the path of transformation. Darkness, failure, relapse, death and woundedness are our primary teachers, rather than ideas or doctrines." This sixth tenet of the Alternative Orthodoxy really has to be experienced over a lifetime more than taught on a Sunday morning. But we won't let that stop us from sharing a bunch of words and thoughts in search of wisdom. Care to join us on the way down?

Note: Due to technical difficulties there is missing audio at 13:20. The missing text is:   

"Somehow the not-knowing is a gift on the path of descent. Not being able to resolve the tension is part of what shapes us, allows us to soften around it.

Another voice I want to introduce you to is that of Valarie Kaur and her book See No Stranger. Kaur is an American lawyer, documentary maker, and community leader..."